With record low mortgage rates and record high affordability, it’s clearly not the economic fundamentals that are holding back buyers from the marketplace. Now it’s time for creative REALTORS to address the buyers’ sense of fear.
In an information economy, companies that don’t know what’s going on with their products, services and consumers look like a funny film comedy – just before the reel runs out.
Do you know what others are saying about you online? Here are three techniques to keep an eye on your business buzz in social media.
Matthew Ferrara’s presentations on Generation Differences in Real Estate and Leads Management from Leading Real Estate Companies of the World 2010 Conference in Las Vegas.
The recession holds answers to the real estate industry’s troubles – if it’s willing to listen. Otherwise it might just find out who’s buried in Grant’s tomb.
Matthew Ferrara offers a radical idea on leads management: Only assign new leads to agents who have a track record of turning prospects into closings. Imagine that!
In a tough market, real estate companies need everyone to contribute their best efforts daily. Agents need to prospect, follow up on leads and ask for referrals. Marketing departments need to revamp websites, produce constant blog content and create company buzz on social networks. And what should managers do to contribute their best? Get out of their office!
There are two basic reasons why companies fail: unwillingness to embrace the obvious changes of their day, and a smug rejection of customer feedback. At Barnes and Noble, you can get both.
On Screen – a new weekly “launch” of news, commentary, resources, bloggers and other information you can use to get your week started – from Matthew Ferrara & Company.
Perhaps the Aflac spokesduck can teach real estate brokers how to avoid quacking-up by the time the housing market turns around.
According to a new survey by NAR, by a factor of 4, most buyers think open houses are far more useless than they were just a year ago.
Why is it that some things just won’t go change? There, on my doorstep, was a reminder that some companies still don’t get it. Nearly two pounds of absurdity, neatly wrapped in a plastic bag, and personally delivered to to my front porch, was a reminder that the more things change, the more some things stay the same. Absurd, when you think of it: Who uses the Yellow Pages these days?
For some time now, I’ve been asking myself if I’d missed the point about Twitter. Give it some time, I told myself. Sometimes these new technologies just need to shake themselves out. Originally, Motorola shelved the mouse as an input device, only to have someone dust it off years later and make it the tool of choice for personal computers. So I gave Twitter a chance. I tried it myself, and even started to “follow” some people online. Alas, with the release of a new study, I now know that I should have stuck with my initial reaction. Twitter is really dumb.
Yesterday found me on the 15th floor of the New York Times building in Manhattan, part of a trio of industry thinkers including Mike Staver and Steve Harney. Joining us for three hours of ”ask anything” discussion were some of the city’s finest brokers and managers. The host, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, had brought us together for a second time (the first in Phoenix) in a brainstorming session that had audience and panel each doing equal work. And unlike one of the usual presentations you might attend, the learning flowed both ways, from industry experts both on stage and in the audience. And what learning it was!
“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” So quipped Mark Twain after hearing his demise had been published in the New York Times. The same might be said today about the real estate industry. A lot of hullabaloo has been making its way through the web these days – the end of brands, numbered days for independent agents, consumers ready to do it on their own. Trouble is, it’s mostly punditry that supports these assertions. Certainly, real estate brokerage is under a lot of pressure to produce profits, cut costs and improve customer satisfaction these days. Even more likely is the potential for the industry to further downsize, eliminate waste and fracture away from grossly inefficient organizational structures and innovative models. But dead? Methinks some people doth protest too much.
